Opinions on flute for my daughter

[berlingoff]

My daughter is in 8th grade, this is her 5th year on the flute. She made the county honor band this year, and takes private lessons from a local director from a private high school.

She is currently playing an Emerson student model, closed hole, but she is really wanting to advance to another instrument with open holes, and a B-Foot.

The local shop as an Emerson EF8BOF that she is in love with. Her band director has checked it out for us, adjustments were made, and it was deemed to be in good order and appropriate for her. Our thought is to get her a new flute and keep the student model for marching and the new for concert band.

My questions are:

1) Is this a solid silver flute or plated. The website is not indicative either way, and doing searches I find sites claiming both constructions.
2) Does anyone have an opinion on this model for a soon to be high school student. (She does play a lot, think 1-2 hours+ a day practicing)

Any information or insight is greatly appreciated!

Thanks

[alex411]

it says it is solid sterling silver body- so the tube is solid silver and a silver plated mechanism. which is the keys and stuff... although just to put me 2cents in, it doesnt really matter what its made out of, it the player likes the instrument, and professionals agree that it is a good suit for her and will help her grow then go for it. i prefer silver plated over solid silver and gold over silver plated and i dont really like platinum at all for me... its all about preferences.

but i would say before you set in yourself on just what your local music store can offer, call a place like flute world or flute4u.com and get a some trials around the same price range. when i did a trial all i had to do was give them a credit card number, they held the money on the credit card while i had the flutes and THE ONLY thing i had to pay for was shipping. if your looking around the 1500 range, their are alot of really good flute companies that you can look at it. Because your daughter is fairly young still, i understand that she can have her heart set on one thing and not want anything else but if you look at some brands like pearl (which i think you will get more bang for your buck) she might be drawn into it more by things like gold plated lips and stuff.

brands i suggest looking into-
pearl, yamaha, sonare, Amadeus (i know ill get hate for those two, but for a highschool student guys... its a good flute) and armstrong.




hope this helps